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Intimacy … With Holy Love, Himself

By Patricia Ann Tefft

October 13, 2020

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).

“Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame” (Psalm 34:5).

As the North Michigan Conference’s Global Associate Prayer (GAP) missionary, my call is to engage in prayer ministry as a full-time occupation in order to advance God’s kingdom from the place of heart to heart fellowship with Him — while embracing a missionary lifestyle with a ministry focused on others who will say “yes.”

The purpose of this ministry is that the body of Christ would become one together in intimacy with Jesus Christ via the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God. The mission is that every man, woman, Jew, and Gentile alike would be sanctified as one to shine His living radiance in a broken, lost, and dying world. The vision is for the church to become a home of prayer for all nations. The strategy is that she would take her place as His bridal warrior to rise up in victory over the entire kingdom of darkness. The goal is that the Spirit and the bride would sing together in a divine duet for Jesus to come at last, and invite those who are thirsty to drink of His living water. The prayer is that it would be used as an instrument to free us from the agony of living in the bondage of worldly sin so that we may experience the ecstasy of heaven’s glory … all to fully enjoy a dance of holy love with God now. Finally, the heart of this ministry is that heaven would invade earth, and those who say “yes” to Him would be made complete and ready to rejoice at the wedding supper of the Lamb. It is then that the sanctified church becomes a force that is unstoppable. In this place, we will not be shaken no matter what the future holds.

Years ago, I was an empty, broken, naked, and blood-stained soul. I knew I was a failure. I was desperate to experience God personally. I ached for more of Him. And so I began to singly pursue Him. My quest was based on the Free Methodist hallmark scripture, 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, “May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” I began to understand that He was asking me to become authentic and transparent with Him. And so it was in the deep agony of failure that I cried out to Him to heal my bleeding soul. I asked Him to be my balm of Gilead, as His very presence came right into the depths of my shame, grief, and despair. He began to bind up the wounds of my broken heart. The process of it all took many years (and I am still a work in progress), but His grace gently healed my fractured past. He began to fulfill my deepest longings with the intimate heart-to-heart union of His loving presence, and gave me hope for the future. During this time, He whispered in my ear, “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2). And so I began to write.

 

I longed for God’s joy, peace, and freedom to become my lifestyle — so I began to create the “Jubilee Experience.” In it, I developed seven categories of holiness in life that God could occupy and transform by His sanctifying presence. These are: spiritual, personal (or soul), physical, relational, vocational, economical, and synergistical (His momentum in the life of the church). Each category consists of a body of seven one-page minuets of prayer that brought me into heart-to-heart fellowship with God. As I moved through each day connected to Him in the minuet, His living Word became even more alive! He began to gradually bring my life into harmony with His. It was like poetry in motion with Him. As I was transformed, the writings were transformed. The more that I would invest in the Jubilee, the more He would bring sanctification into each area of living. I encountered a deeper communion of love with Him as He continued to set me free. As I grew in the journey, I experienced more of His perfect peace, fullness of joy, and unconditional love. I learned to be at one with Him in daily fellowship. My spirit was knitted in union with His Spirit. And so, it became a dance with God. This is the Jubilee Experience! Seven categories of holiness multiplied by seven minuets of prayer offer forty-nine areas of koinonia fellowship with Him and each other. The fiftieth day will be when we are finally and completely united with Him at the marriage supper of the Lamb!

The Jubilee creates a beautiful synergy of a holy love life with Jesus as the center. The life application of it will profoundly impact all who say “yes” to Him. Loving our Lord then becomes a holy dance of life together — as He invites us to freely move in the rhythm of His joy, the anchor of His hope, and the power of His love. Living here brings a personal vivacity and glow of His inner splendor that emanates His presence from the core of our being. His brilliance moves us outward. His living radiance will draw even the ones who are desperately lost into the bridal church for true discipleship. We will then shine with heaven’s glory to penetrate a darkened, lost, and deceived world. We celebrate as we are triumphant over the enemy who is continually defeated!

I close with this prophetic prayer of commune intimately taken from the Jubilee Experience as a gift from my heart to yours:

“Oh Lord God, my desire is for the church to invest her entire life focused on pursuing an encounter of intimate communion with You and each other in genuine koinonia fellowship … as I am in complete and humble awe that You gave up Your entire life on the cross to fervently pursue us. May our trembling heart be awakened in a continual state of yearning for the deepest connection of love that is possible on this earth and in this time of our life. Oh precious Beloved, show us how to become one with Your unconditional love that You have so freely given to us. Help us to realize that there is a wounded, gaping, and bleeding cavern in our human soul that can only be mended, healed, and filled by the occupied dwelling of the glory of Your presence. It is here that Your grace and mercy wait for us to ask You to come into the very core of our being. It is here that You knit Your eternal heart with ours. It is here that first love living is made possible. Holy Spirit, please commune with our spirit so that full joy, pure delight and transformed freedom will abound. Sanctify and infuse us with Your living radiance as we are one with You, so that we may shine brilliant in this lost, deceived, and darkened world. This is the absolute deepest desire of our heart. We love You so much! In Jesus’ beautiful name, amen.”

Please prayerfully consider how God may call you to help infuse this ministry into the body of Christ. If you would like more information, or if you would like a copy the Jubilee Experience for your own personal/corporate use, or would like me or my team to come to your church or ministry to host a retreat or conference, please contact me at:

Pastor Patricia Ann Tefft

320 E. Oak St., Apt. 110

Greenville, MI 48838

(231) 629-0363

sanctifiedjoy@gmail.com

 

About the Author

Patricia Ann Tefft serves as the Global Associate Prayer (GAP) Missionary for the North Michigan Conference and beyond. She cherishes her Christian heritage as a fifth-generation (four of which were ordained) Free Methodist. When she was appointed to Millbrook FMC in 2008, she learned that her great-grandmother, the Rev. Coda Mae Butler pastored there in 1922-23. Patricia became ordained in 2013. She holds a certification in biblical counseling with the American Association of Christian Counselors. Patricia also served as a consecrated deacon and was a prayer team chair in several of her former churches. She has had over 30 years of experience in prayer counseling, inner healing, spiritual formation/direction, and bringing freedom to those held in captivity. She has infused the intimate love life of Jesus into hundreds of other lives. She has designed and written various prayer walks, retreats, seminars and courses on how to infuse prayer into the center of the life of the church. Patricia is the author, dancer, and prophetic poet of the Jubilee Experience – anointed writings that unlock the mystery of living in the grace and rhythm of entire sanctification. As His beloved ones enter in, they are taken from the agony of living in this world to experiencing the ecstasy of heaven’s glory. Life becomes a freedom dance of holy love with Him now! Patricia’s mandate is to help prepare the sanctified Bride for His arrival. She is now developing a new personal ministry and prayer team that will soon go online called Living Radiance Ministries.